Mars Pods Honeycomb Bites

Pods area crunchy biscuit product that's unique to Australia and New Zealand. They are manfactured by Mars Snackfoods, and in 2004 were released to the Australian public in the base flavours of Snickers and Mars. Twix soon followed, and since then we've seen various flavours come and go, including Cherry Bite, Mint Slice, Toffee Time, and their new release, Honeycomb Bite.

I've known about these since January, but my Mars rep made me swear not to share them with you until they were released to the public. (Check out the little story on the back of the package - apparently they beat me to the review.)

Constructed from a cup-shaped wafer bottom, the Pods are then filled with chocolate, caramel or flavoured cream, and topped with chocolate. The biscuits themselves are small, a touch over 2.5cm (one inch) wide and long, and about 1cm at the thickest point. Pods are crunchy, tasty, and very more-some, but also incredibly sweet.

Through the transport process, many Pods tend to lose the lip of wafer edge, and the top chocolate layer often ends up scuffed and dull. Beyond the cosmetic damage, the biscuits are whole. When opened, the bag smells absolutely delicious. There's a huge note of toasted honey and not much else.

The crunch is a big selling point of Pods - the bag states they are 'ingeniously crunchy', after all - and I've never experienced a bag of Pods not arriving fresh and crunch. On biting the biscuit, there's of course the lovely texture of the wafer base, and then the smooth coolness of the chocolatey entre. Despite what the bag says about the centre containing a 'dollop of honeycomb-flavoured cream', the centre is most definitely solid and stuff, a little like a fondant, but when combined in the chew with the wafer and the chocolate, it may as well be as solid as the chocolate for all the difference it would make. And unlike the picture on the front, it's not a definite layer of chocolate over over the honeycomb filling - there's a neat little squiggle that shows where the filling and the topping overlapped in application. And of course, there's never as much filling as there is in the picture!


Chocolate is a strong flavour here, and it's only towards the end that the honeycomb flavour emerges. It's a lot like the honeycomb pieces in Hokey Pokey ice cream - a little malty, and there are lots of warm honey notes in there too.

I LOVE these, and it shouldn't really be any surprise that the bag of these didn't even last the time it took me to write this review.

Cadbury Freddo 100s and 1000s

Cadbury Freddos are an originally Australian confectionery. Invented in 1930 by a worker named Harry Melbourne, the Freddo was acquired by Cadbury in 1967, and is now also available in the UK, New Zealand, Ireland and Zimbabwe. Flavours available in Australian over the years include Dairy Milk, peppermint (flavoured cream filling), strawberry (flavoured cream filling), Dream (white chocolate), milky top (half white chocolate, half milk chocolate), Crunchie (with Crunchie pieces), rice crisp, rainbow crunch and pineapple (only in the twin-pack variety), which was launched last year. The rice crisp, milky top and rainbow crunch varieties are no longer produced in Australia. Freddo also has a friend, the Caramello Koala, an iconic Australian favourite.

In 2030, they will be 100 years old - imagine that! I'm sure Cadbury has some surprises up their sleeve for that anniversary. For now, we have a new addition to the line, Freddo with 100s and 1000s. Before someone asks, 100s and 1000s are also known as sprinkles, but in my opinion, 100s and 1000s are round, while sprinkles are tubular in shape. 100s and 1000s themselves are also known as nonpariels, and are just made from sugar and colouring. They're about 1.5mm in width and are uniform in size, and are known for their bright and cheerful colours.

Onto the Freddo. This new flavour is available in both the 15g fun-pack and 35g "king size" jumbo serves. The packaging is bright, the lime green and pink-theme different from any of the existing packaging colours. Freddo is shown juggling the 100s and 1000s - cause that's what frogs do, of course.

Inside we've got a spotty Mr Freddo who looks like he's come down with a case of the odd-coloured chicken pox. Underneath the chocolate you can almost pick out the bright colours of the 100s and 1000s, except it seems most of the colours have disappeared - probably melted off in the moulding process. Considering they are known for their bright and cheery colours, this is a bit sad. On the back, there are actually less 100s and 1000s visible than on the front. he ones that are visible can be felt , but their appearance doesn't add any real texture to the otherwise smooth back.

Crack the Freddo open and now we can see more faded 100s and 1000s. The cross-section picture may look like it's showing a lot of bubbles, but those are just indents from the 100s and 1000s on the opposite side. There are a lot present, but it's nowhere near dense. When biting into the Freddo, they add a little bit of crunch and texture, but no additional flavour. By themselves 100s and 1000s are just sweet, so it makes sense that when swamped with chocolate they would be almost indiscernible. Without the texture and the little 'pops' between my teeth, I wouldn't even know they were there. Be warned that you may end up with a few stuck in your teeth afterwards, though!

Cadbury Caramel Bunnies

(This is a bit late, but for some reason it didn't post earlier, so have it anyway.)

The other new introduction to the Cadbury Easter line up is the 'Caramel Bunnies'. Aimed at women, the Caramel Bunny is a new character that will presumably be sticking around in the future. She even has her own Facebook page.

As per a lot of Cadbury's recent product introductions here in Australia, the Caramel Bunny has been available in the UK, and had a long run over the 1980s and 1990s there. In 2009 she was brought back to advertise the Caramel brand, but (to the best of my knowledge) this is the first time we've seen her on our shores.

The package itself is the new matte foil Cadbury has been introducing over the past year on its medium and king-size bars. On the front, against the golden caramel colour (also used on the Caramel Eggs and other Caramello products) is a sketch of a flirty-looking Miss Bunny, complete with pink bow.

The pack of two weighs 40g, which is about 10g less than the standard Dairy Milk and Caramello medium bar. Each bunny is quite heavy for its size, and is right on 7cm long by 2.5cm wide (feet) and just over 1cm thick. The front is well moulded, showing a reasonable copy of the sketch, complete with little bow. As with most Cadbury chocolate, it's bright and slightly glossy, and has a slight milky smell - though I swear I can smell Easter in there too!

Inside there is a disappointing amount of caramel, though the thick plug of chocolate at the back tells why the bunny felt so heavy. Getting to the caramel was an excursion in itself, but at least the caramel wasn't terrible. The consistency was lovely. It wasn't at all oozy, and didn't find its way out of the decapitated Miss Bunny as I photographed. It was a lovely toffee colour, warm and brown and neither opaque nor transparent.It reminded me a little bit of caramel fudge in flavour, bu was beautiful and smooth. I only wish that there had been more of it!

The combination of the caramel and chocolate is sweet, but not overwhelming, though the flavour will reside in your mouth for a little while. The Bunny is better as two small bites, and one Bunny is one serve.

The Bunnies contain: milk, soy and wheat glucose syrup. They may contain trades of peanuts and tree nuts.

Nestle Violet Crumble Block

It's been a little while since we've seen something new and exciting from the Nestle stable. While not necessarily new and exciting, this Violet Crumble block is an interesting idea, and the first foray Nestle has made into the 'combining bar and block' idea. (Cadbury went there years ago with its Dairy Milk and Crunchie block, so Nestle is a wee bit behind on the uptake here.)

Speaking of Crunchie, if you ask an Australian which bar they prefer, chances are they will side with either the Violet Crumble or the Crunchie, but rarely both. My uneducated theory behind this is because while both bars are technically honeycomb, they have vastly different textures. The Violet Crumble is pale in colour, somewhat mild in taste and has a chalky texture, while a Crunchie will leave you with toffee-like pieces in your teeth (if you even have any left from the tooth-decay-inducing sweetness of the chocolate and aerated, 'bubbly' honeycomb).

Described as a 'milk chocolate block with honeycomb pieces', the packaging isn't all that inspiring to look at. It's not even in the same colouration as the Violet Crumble block (which is metallic purple). Perhaps this whispers of a future packaging change, or maybe it was just to avoid a packaging clash with the omnipresent Cadbury trademark purple. I picked my block up at Coles when it was on special for $3. (I did buy one from Safeway/Woolworths, also on special, when it first came out, promptly ate it and have been waiting for it to come back on special since.) I'm not a TV watcher, Facebook participant or magazine reader so can't comment on any advertising, if there even has been any.

It's fairly weighty for a honeycomb product. (The bar is 50g and is about as long as this block.) Inside the boring packaging we have a decent-sized block, embossed with the Nestle logo, and split into the three-per-row shape, which allows for a large bite or two small nibbles. It's nicely smooth on top, somewhat glossy, with barely a hint of the honeycomb inside. On the underside is where the fun begins. The chocolate is just PACKED with honeycomb pieces, its surface rippled and bumpy like asphalt. There is definitely a lot more honeycomb in this than in the Dairy Milk Crunchie block.

The smell is a little malty and sweet (reminds me of Easter, curiously), and milky.  The ingredient list reveals that there is just 20% each of cocoa and milk solids in this - very little at all. When we break it into pieces, the honeycomb takes up just the bottom layer of the block, though this does seem to vary; in a few areas the pieces went about halfway up the square.

On first bite there's a little bit of rumbling from the honeycomb layer, and then the malty flavour from earlier reappears, softening the sweetness of the chocolate. It's not a complex flavour by any stretch of the imagination - just sweet milk chocolate with a hint of malt. I don't get any real honeycomb flavour at all, to be honest. It is a sweet bar, but not in the league of Cadbury's version, and a few pieces will be enough to satisfy most people.

Cadbury Easter: Egg n Spoon

I'm sure I'm not the first person to note that commercial holidays mean the retail giants bring out their goods earlier every year. It's only three days after Valentines Day and already Easter stock has begun to arrive at my little shop. Supermarkets have had mini eggs out for almost two weeks.

First in the door at my shop is Cadbury. Much of the range is the same as previous years - hollow eggs, bunnies, plus the yearly parade of the Humpty Casket and similar. But what's new for 2012 is the much-touted 'Egg n Spoon' range.

Advertised as 'chocolate egg with mousse centre', the packaging takes a somewhat different route, away from the plastic, and goes with the more rustic egg carton - tinted Cadbury purple, of course. It's certainly a distinctive and novel approach - I'm sure the cartons will be popular with kids. Inside, however, is most definitely adults-only. The eggs inside come in two varieties - milk and double choc - in which the mousse centre is either 'milky' or 'choc' flavoured.

Remove the cardboard sleeve and open the carton, and inside we find four eggs wrapped in black and purple foil. At first I thought they were similar in size to the Creme and Caramello eggs, but they are actually more than a touch larger. Given the mousse centre, these eggs are lighter, despite being bigger. The eggs are labelled their different flavours, but with very small text that's easy to miss. The text on the choc-flavoured egg is almost unreadable.

Enclosed with the four eggs are two small plastic spoons - purple, of course. Cadbury rarely miss a chance to stamp their trademark purple over anything! Inside the foil we find one ugly egg.

I would have expected something much better from Cadbury. The egg shell itself seems to be basic Dairy Milk - a milky, somewhat unappetising brown colour. There is no Cadbury name stamped into the product interestingly enough - once the foil is gone this could be any company's product. The chocolate itself has a slight gloss - though considering I can see fingerprints in the 'gloss', I think it's more like fat - but it's a little scuffed and definitely not in perfect condition, and has an obvious seam line around the diameter. The moulded top is, according to the packaging, where you are to bite the top off. At the very top of the egg is a small circle - presumably a plug after the filling has been inserted, as most were not perfectly round.

Bite off the top and we get our first glimpse of the mousse filling.  The top of the egg is an empty void, though the exact location of the void seemed to vary, as some of the eggs I opened had their filling set at an angle, instead of level with the top. For the milky flavoured egg, the centre is a light cream, a little glossy, and reminds me vaguely of toasted coconut.

Scooping out a spoonful of the filling shows the moussey texture. There are no bubbles, but the mix is definitely light and fluffy. The milky flavour tastes like white chocolate, but is not sweet like white chocolate. The double choc egg, on the other hand, will knock your socks off if you're not a sweet tooth. It smells a little hazelnutty (the ingredients note the inclusion of hazelnut paste on both varieties). It's more matte in appearance, but shows the fluffy texture off well. It holds its shape on the spoon with no issues. Taste-wise, by itself the choc mousse filling is somewhat like a chocolate milkshake and real-chocolate mousse. It's strong, it's very sweet and eating a whole egg together with the outer chocolate shell might just make you feel a little bit sick.

The milk chocolate shell contains 28% cocoa solids and 25% milk solids, which is a little lower than the Dairy Milk blocks. Many of the Cadbury Easter products we received have a best before date of somewhere in September, but this product's date is in June. But if there are any sweet teeth in your household, I can't imagine they will last even that long.

Ingredients: Sugar, milk solids, vegetable oil, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, emulsifiers (soy lectin, 476, 475), hazelnut paste, flavours.

Allergen statement: Contains milk, hazelnuts and soy. May contain traces of wheat, egg and other tree nuts.

Made in France.

Lindt Excellence Passion Fruit Intense block

Lindt & Sprüngli AG, more casually known as Lindt, is one of those brands known world-wide for their amazing range and selection of quality chocolates. The company is based in Switzerland and was founded in 1845. Their collections include the ever-popular Lindor blocks and truffle balls, the Excellence blocks, gift boxes, and seasonal releases of their all-year-range selection as well.

Lindt are very good at keeping their range fresh and interesting, and the Excellence block range is no exception.

Introduced to the Australian market within the last couple of weeks, the Passion Fruit Intense block joins other popular flavours in the Excellence range, such as Blueberry and Sea Salt. Unlike some of the other flavours, Passion Fruit also includes pieces of almond dispersed throughout the 49% cocoa solid dark chocolate block. (I must reveal to my readers here that I am neither a fan of passion fruit nor nuts. Still, in the interests of providing a balanced and interesting blog, review I must!)

It's a warm day here in Melbourne as I begin the review, perhaps a little too warm for chocolate. As I tear open the well-sealed matte foil surrounding the block, I'm greeted with a strong, almost alcoholic scent, though it doesn't have distinct notes. On closer inspection, the passion fruit scent is clear - strong, bold and sweet, clearly the dominating flavour. Despite not liking passion fruit, the chocolate smells delicious!

The back of the block is gently rippled with hints of almond slices, more than I expected. The block breaks with a mild thunk - it's definitely too warm to be reviewing chocolate - and in the seams I can see pieces of almond, big pieces and small, that promise to provide an interesting texture.

In the mouth, despite the strong passion fruit scent the rich heady chocolate notes pop up first, before quickly being replaced with the bold and summery flavours of the passion fruit. Amongst the pieces of almond I can feel tiny little pieces of what must be the 'passion fruit preparation' listed in the ingredients. When I bite them I get a strong taste of what makes me think of Passiona if it were paired with vodka.

As with all Lindt chocolate, the melt is soft and creamy, interrupted with the sharp, thin pieces of almond. Despite the summery flavour, this isn't a block that should be scoffed a la Cadbury Dairy Milk, but a few pieces should be savoured on mild summer evenings.

Natural Confectionery Company Merry Blissmas

(My apologies for not posting sooner; I was on a team planning a national event and blogging fell by the wayside.)

I'm getting back into the swing of reviewing with this bag from Natural Confectionery Company.  A step up from its usual range, this bag of 'lime and raspberry flavoured jellies' clocks in at a huge 300g, and these little babies aren't cheap, either. At my convenience store we're selling them at $6.99 per bag; Coles Online is selling a bag for $6.42 ($2.14 per 100g) at the time of posting. They are pretty expensive for a seasonal product, so I hope they live up to the price.

The bag features a gold band with white stars, perhaps to help the package distinguish itself more easily from the rest of the TNCC range. The graphic on the front is of the familiar 'raspberry' shape we are all familiar with, with one raspberry in a light green colour, the other in a darker red, and tied together with a red ribbon. As with all TNCC products this item has no artifical colours or flavours. These jellies also have a 'soft, fruity centre' and already I'm wondering if this is a reuse of the machinery that makes the Tropical, Tangy and Berry Bliss ranges. The name certainly suggests so.

Upon opening the bag, I'm greeted with a faint, nondescript sweet scent that for some reason reminds me of the toy shop nearby. (Yeah, I don't know either.) The jellies themselves aren't as bright or glossy as the graphic on the front suggests; rather, the lime-flavoured jelly  is a boring and dull olive-green, while the raspberry-flavoured one is more of a muted dark pink. I'm seeing a little variation in the colour of the raspberry jelly, but the lime stays depressingly boring.

  As well as the raspberry and lime jellies, inside the bag I'm also finding these little blogs, which from the texture I think are escaped 'middles', or the soft centres. The funny part is that they have been through the moulding process; you can see the ripples. There were about four or five in my bag, and they were all from the raspberry jelly, not the lime. Interestingly, I've never had this problem with the rest of the Bliss range.

A bite reveals that these are seasonal additions to the Bliss range. Like the other varieties in the range, these jellies have a similarly-flavoured centre. I'm finding as I make my way through the bag that the amount of soft centre, and the placement, varies a little with each jelly.  Though I haven't found any that are actively oozing, it's easy to make some of them burst just by squeezing it gently.

Disappointingly, the raspberry jelly doesn't taste very raspberry at all, and instead just gives me a vague 'berry' taste. There's a little tartness from the outside jelly, but the inside centre only serves to soften  the tartness rather than follow through with further notes. By itself, the centre is very jammy and overly sweet.

The lime surprisingly does taste strongly of lime juice (surprising, because I can't any mention of lime in the ingredients list). There's a big sharp note of lime from the outer jelly, and the soft centre continues with this rather than overwhelming it as with the raspberry. The lime is not as sweet as the raspberry, and eaten together they contrast each other nicely.

As with the rest of the Bliss range, the texture of the outside jelly varies. Some are tougher, like a cheap jelly, while others are very soft and easy to squish.

Just for kicks, I just happened to have on hand some Tropical Bliss (which I think have been discontinued), and I've pictured the Merry Blissmas alongside an orange-flavour jelly from the Tropical range.

Cadbury Furry Friends

Cadbury Furry Friends are one of the few lollies I can remember from my childhood, 20-odd years ago. Sadly, the packaging has changed since then.

The Furry Friends I remember was wrapped in a piece of paper-lined foil, and then held inside a paper sleeve that, like now, featured endangered Australian animals. The foil retained that delicious chocolate smell for several days, and inside the sleeve were several facts about the featured animal on the front. My late mother used to collect the paper sleeves. Unfortunately they did not survive my childhood, and I can't even find images on Google to share with you a bit of Cadbury history. Although, I did find these which look a little older than the ones I remember. (I couldn't even find Furry Friends listed on the Cadbury site.)

Inside the Furry Friends plastic wrapper you'll find a flat, thin bar of plain milk chocolate, moulded with the cursive Cadbury name. The bar itself is around 9.5cm long by 4.3cm wide. The raised edge is about 0.5cm tall, and the centre is thinner. Surprisingly, the bar managed to remain unbroken during its travel home in my handbag, although it didn't arrive home completely undamaged.

Disappointingly, inside the wrapper I didn't find any facts about the endangered Red Kangaroo on the front.

There's no difference in recipe between the Cadbury Dairy Milk used for this bar and for other Dairy Milk products; it is just presented differently, and in a more kid-friendly format. (A step up from Freddo Frogs, perhaps?) The bar itself smells fantastic, with the strong milky, creamy note that instantly reminds me of the chocolate-scented foil from my childhood. It's very sweet and inviting.

The long, thin shape makes the 15g of chocolate go a lot further than a Freddo of the same size, forcing you to take your time and savour the milk and sugar notes.

If you are not a sweet tooth, then Cadbury Dairy Milk may prove to be too sweet for your tastebuds. (I'm a sweet tooth, and I find it to be a bit much for me sometimes.) While it is a rather one-note munch, it is a dependable taste that hits the spot when you're craving something sweet and simple that doesn't fill you up.

Nestle Kit Kat Chunky 3 Cookies and Cream

Kit Kats are well known across the internet for having a large array of flavours around the world. (Just look at this list!) Kit Kats themselves have been around since the 1930s, although the Chunky variation, involving one super-sized wafer finger, was only introduced in 1999.

The '3' varieties of Kit Kat Chunky have been a recent development for Nestle, introduced in May this year here in Australia. There are three flavour varieties in the 3 range: chocolate, caramel and cookies and cream. Each bar is sectioned into three, and each section contains a different filling based around the flavour: fudge, crisp and sauce.

I've actually eaten these quite a few times before, but I thought I should pick one up to review as well. I did have a chocolate one in the review bin, although that one has mysteriously disappeared.

This variety is the cookies and cream-flavoured one. Those who think the light blue packet looks familiar aren't dreaming - it was used back in 2008 for the Cookie Dough variety of Kit Kat Chunky. Sadly that one has been discontinued.

This bar is decently-sized, weighing in at 65g - a good 12g more than a standard Mars bar. The bar gives off a crispy, wafer scent as is removed from the packet. Sure, there's chocolate there, 65% of it, but the wafer is the first scent to say hello. Once fully unveiled, the bar is shown to have a dark milky-coffee-coloured chocolate that smells of a mild sweetness. Sadly, there aren't many cocoa notes to be found, but since the chocolate contains a minimum of 20% cocoa solids, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. The bar features the Kit-Kat logo (without the Nestle add-on) on top of each of the three pieces.

Dived into three 'breakable chunks', the bar's three different centres are separated. Some customers might enjoy the thrill of not knowing what filling they will encounter upon their first bite. Breaking the bar into three reveals the wafer that continues along the entire length of the bar. It's chocolate flavoured and has three layers, with a mild chocolate centre in between each layer. The wafer has a nice crunch to it, although when I sliced the bar for photos, it crumbled easily.

My first bite reveals the 'vanilla fudge' centre. By itself, the fudge is quite stiff, and is reminiscent of cheap plasticine that has been left unprotected. The vanilla flavor behind is is rather strong, but also somewhat unnatural, and I'm reminded of homebrand vanilla ice cream. Disappointingly, when eaten as part of the bar, the fudge all but disappears under the taste of the strong and sweet chocolate outer and the crunchy wafer.

The middle section of the bar is the 'cookie crunch' filling. It seems to be white chocolate with biscuit pieces - perhaps it's some of the chocolate from the Milky Way Milk & Cookies bar. When removed from the bar (via surgery to remove the top layer of chocolate), the filling doesn't taste like much on its own. There's too little of it to have any real impact on my tastebuds. When eaten as a whole piece though, the filling is an interesting comparison to the outer chocolate. The extra crunchy pieces of biscuit are a nice bonus, echoing the wafer finger. Surprisingly, I can also tell there is a smidgen of white chocolate present, and it adds an extra touch of sweetness.

Finally we reach the 'cookie cream' filling. The ingredients list gives no indication of what it is made from. The cream, unlike the image on the packet, is actually a pale caramel or tan colour. It has a nice string to it, and is more stretchy than the caramel found in a Mars or Snickers bar. When sampled by itself, the cream is disappointing in taste. There's no real flavour of anything beyond sweetness and burnt sugar.The cream really comes alive when tried with the rest of the bar, though. The soft and smooth texture contrasts the crisp wafer and adds an element of surprise, especially when the top layer of chocolate caves in under your bite.

Overall, the bar is an exercise in the overly sweet. The play on the differing textures for each filling is a fun novelty, although it is nice to have the consistant wafer throughout that ties it back to the original and well-known Kit Kat. For someone who is not a sweet tooth, I suspect they may have trouble finishing the entire bar in one sitting.

Natural Confectionery Company I Love Red Snakes

The Natural Confectionery Company is fully Australian made, and has its roots in early Australian confectionery. It originally began as Sunrise Confectioners in 1941, a company which also made other products, such as aniseed rings, barley sugar, bulls eyes and chocolate bullets. Their second factory was based in Prahran, Victoria, and in 1991 they moved to a bigger factory in Camberwell. 

The following year, Sunrise Confectioners founded The Natural Confectionery Company, and focused on their all-natural range of jellies. In 2003 they were bought out by Cadbury Scheweppes (now owned by Kraft, and the range of lollies, which are free from artificial colours and flavours, is now the most popular range on Australian shelves.

TNCC jellies have a nice soft chew that doesn't stick to your teeth. The flavour generally isn't overpowering, but this factor also makes it very easy to eat a whole bag in one sitting.

I spotted this new offering from The Natural Confectionery Company in Coles last week, and had to pick up a bag. The Coles Online website lists this as a limited edition product, although I can't find any mention of it on the TNCC site.

I'm amused by the bag's title. They aren't just 'Red Snakes'; they are 'I Love Red Snakes'. The front of the bag also says: 'Taste our new raspberry flavour'. I had a bag of regular TNCC Snakes at home and checked; the original range also includes a ripe raspberry flavour, so I'm curious to know if this bag really is new. Unfortunately I didn't have any raspberry snakes from the original bag left, so comparisons will have to wait for another post.

As soon as the bag is opened I can smell a strong scent that reminds me of raspberry jam, and there is a very slight medicinal note there as well. It's not an off-putting scent; it's warm and inviting.

The snakes themselves are the same length and shape as standard TNCC snakes, and the texture is the same. Up close the jam notes are stronger, but the first flavour that comes to the taste party is of a very mild, sweet berry tea. It doesn't lean directly towards raspberry - there's no tartiness or sharpness like you would expect from the fruit. The chew is almost as stiff reluctant to break as a gummi bear. While the jellies are soft, they are not as soft as some of the other jellies available, such as Allen's Snakes. However, there are no little pieces left in my teeth and the snakes leave a pleasant, somewhat floral taste behind, but it doesn't stay for long.

I can see this product being popular with kids. The TNCC range of jellies have a mild flavour that could work well for littlies, and they have the benefit of being free from artificial colours and flavours.